The Best Yu-Gi-Oh OTKs

Hope you're ready, because we have one heck of a battle-royal to get through. And you want to know the best part? The winner is always you.

An OTK, short for One-Turn Knockout, is what every player in a competitive environment dreams to achieve. Whether you're a UFC fighter, a soccer player, or even an enthusiast of a trading card game, it brings great satisfaction and security knowing a technique exists in one's arsenal that can dominate the opponent, a "special move" granting its user almost certain victory. In the Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game, many forms of OTKs exist for a variety of different play-styles. The following list, set in no particular order, highlights the best in the current game. Add them to your arsenal at your opponent's peril.

Atlantean OTK ("Neptabyss, the Atlantean Prince" Variant)

The Play:

Summon Neptabyss, and use his effect to send Atlantean Dragoons from the deck to the graveyard and the rest of his effect to add 1 Atlantean monster from your deck to the hand

Use Dragoons’ effect to add Mermail Abyssmegalo to your hand from the deck. At this point you should have at least 1 other Water monster, 1 Atlantean monster, and 1 Mermail Abyssmegalo in your hand

Special Summon Abyssmegalo by discarding the Water and the Atlantean monster. If those monsters just so happen to have effects when discarded, that’s even better ^_^. Use his effect when Special Summoned to add the equip Spell Abyss-Scale of the Mizuchi to your hand.

Use Abyssmegalo’s other effect to tribute Neptabyss so Abyssmegalo can attack twice.

Activate Neptabyss’s effect that activates when he’s tributed to Special Summon Dragoons from the Graveyard.

Attack directly with Abyssmegalo twice and the Dragoons to end the game.

Why it's one of the best:

Well, it should come as no surprise the bastard sons of Dark World and Atlantis made another list. I mean, can’t you see the resemblance between Goldd and his over-steroid, forgotten, underwater son, Abyssmegalo? In any case, Pendulums have made Mermails no less versatile, and this versatility became a swiss-army armory when their prince came to the scene. Neptabyss, the Atlantean Prince’s effect to instantly send any Atlantean from the deck to the graveyard makes him an effective toolbox for any Atlantean monster in the deck, including Dragoons’ effect to search for any other Atlantean monster, and then to make this prince even more of brat, his tribute can special summon any Atlantean from the graveyard. Oh, did the writer forget to mention he’s a level 1 monster and a Sea Serpent? One for One and Deep Sea Diva further increase the odds the kid will grace your presence, making it harder to escape his influence. So yeah, the Crown Prince of Deer Park raises the insane options of the Mermails to tsunami levels; however, for now, they still lack adequate destruction and protective support, forcing Mermail players to fight their way to the OTK if they’re opponent uses a half decent deck. Still, with only two cards and no setup needed to deal over 8000 points of damage in a single turn, this OTK will place any duelist on high-alert when confronting Ariel’s underwater mob.

Aquaman has some competition. Instead of controlling sea creatures, this kid controls the effects of any Atlantean. | Source

Anti-Heal OTK

The Play:

Summon the Nurse Reficule the Fallen One or set the Bad Reaction to Simochi

Set the 3 Gift Cards

Activate the 3 Gift Cards during your opponent’s Draw Phase. If you’re using Bad Reaction, activate it last after activating your 3 Gift Cards so it will be the last card in the chain, making it resolve (jargon for its effect completing itself) last.

Instead of your opponent gaining 3000 lifepoints for each Gift Card, the Nurse Reficule or Bad Reaction will make them lose 3000 lifepoints for each Gift Card. Do the math, and that’s it.

Why it's one of the best:

Two words describe the effectiveness of the Anti-Heal OTK: simple and flexible. Unlike other strategies on this list requiring complicated combos and card maneuvering to whittle one’s opponent, one simple equation runs the core of anti-heal: If I have this card on the field or activated, then when you gain, you lose. Even if one doesn’t draw the required Gift Cards, there are plenty of life-gaining Spells/Traps that can compensate for the missing damage (Tri-and-Guess, The Paths of Destiny, Rain of Mercy, Soul Taker, etc.). However, the downside to a straightforward approach is your opponent can predict your strategy and set things accordingly, for all it takes is adequate Trap or Spell disruption to bring this OTK to a Superman-train-stopping halt. Nevertheless, if you want to bury your opponent without putting much thought into it, there’s no better OTK than Anti-Heal.

Our mothers warned us about taking gifts from strangers... If your opponent's giving you that many lifepoints, realize they're fattening you for the slaughter.

The Play:

You should have either, at the least: 1 Edge Imp Sabres and 2 Fluffals in the hand or 1 Edge Imp Sabres in the hand, 1 Fluffal in the hand, and 1 in the Graveyard .

Use Polymerization or Fluffal Owl to fusion summon Frightfur Tiger, using the Edge Imp Sabres and at least 1 Fluffal in the hand as material. Use Tiger’s effect to destroy enough of your opponent’s cards so you can attack unhindered, considering Tiger gets to destroy a card for each material used to summon it.

Use Frightfur Fusion to banish your Edge Imp Sabres and 2 other Fluffal monsters in your Graveyard to fusion summon Frightfur Wolf. Frightfur Wolf can now attack 3 times per Battle Phase. Also remember both of your monsters get a 600 attack boost thanks to Tiger’s effect.

Attack 3 times with Frightfur Wolf, once with Frightfur Tiger, then pat yourself on the back.

Why it's one of the best:

Clearing the field isn’t enough to warrant a deck gracing a top OTK list. The Frightfur’s toy-torture-knockout earned its slot by dressing itself with a deck synergizing itself around the OTK. The writer doesn’t think it’s a coincidence the materials used for a Tiger with ballistics can be transformed into a Wolf with a serious case of the munchies with a single card, and neither should you. An archetype that can OTK is one thing; a consistent archetype made to OTK is a creature of a higher species, and why the Frightfur OTK is as threatening as horrific, demon-possessed toys.

Play:

Set Chain Material

During your next turn, activate Fusion Gate and Chain Material

Use the effect of both cards to banish Burstinatrix, Bubbleman, Clayman, and Avian from your deck to fusion summon Electrum. Using Electrum’s effect, this will return all banished cards to your deck, recycling your Heroes.

Use the Gustav Max on the field and your Electrum in the graveyard as material to fusion summon Gaia

Use the Electrum in your graveyard, there now when you banished Gustav Max, and Gaia as material to fusion summon Shining.

Fusion summon the 3rd Electrum to recycle the other two Electrum, your Gustav Max, your Gaia, and other banished cards

Repeat steps 4 – 8 until victory.

Why it's the king:

In the writer’s opinion, no better OTK currently exists than the Electrum/Gustav OTK. Just think about it for a second: What chances would you have of defeating a team of superheroes creating their own Captain Planet and an ultra-destructive railgun?! But seriously… Only two cards are needed in hand to start this super-hero-railgun-bonanza, and you don’t even need to attack to make the knock-out happen. It’s effectively the Quillbolt Hedgehog loop for half the cost, and that, mes amis, is deadlier than nightshade dipped in arsenic. The only thing preventing the Electrum/Gustav connection from reaching the classic Frog-FTK status is the card making the dream work is a Trap, granting an opposing duelist 1 turn to defend from the OTK, and that’s all a prepared duelist would need to save one’s goosebumped skin. That one moment to breathe keeps Electrum/Gustav from the banlist, but, if this list was ordered, it would be crowned the champ of OTKs.

I don't know if there's a Yugioh monster alive that should survive a blast from that thing... with cannonballs. Now imagine it chucking superheroes at you.

Exodia OTK

What you need:

In Hand:

1 Exodia the Forbidden One, 1 Left Leg of the Forbidden One, 1 Left Arm of the Forbidden One, 1 Right Arm of the Forbidden One, 1 Right Leg of the Forbidden One

The Play:

1. Get all five pieces of Exodia in your hand and you instantly win the game ^_^.

Why it's one of the best:

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with the OG of OTKs. Back when Lord of D.s roamed the Earth while playing flutes to summon white dragons, there was Exodia. Back when the Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan still wrote Last Wills, there was Exodia. Back when Yata and The Envoy of the End dominated the world with an iron wing and claw, there was Exodia. Duelists have placed these five cards through the scientific method, theorems, and dissertations, trying to discover the quickest way to excavate this beloved fossil to one’s hand. So far, No Hope For Escape, Spell-draw (consisting of the Royal Magical Library, the Magical Citadel of Endymion, and a deck with more Spells than Merlin’s library), and Heart of the Underdog-Normal prove the most efficient methods, but what if Konami decided to unearth a deck-theme around him, like they did with the Egyptian God cards? Let that sink in for a moment. As always, each part of the Forbidden One limited offers the biggest exploit against the deck, and, even with cards like Exod Flame and The Legendary Exodia Incarnate recycling Exodia’s pieces from the graveyard, banishing the pieces is still a permanent seal on the strategy. Nevertheless, you just can’t have an OTK list without the oldest one of all time.

It would be an interesting experiment to see which Yugioh monster is more recognizable: Exodia or Blue-Eyes White Dragon?

Greed OTK

What you need:

In the Hand:

2 Greed, 2 Disturbance Strategy

Your Opponent:

4 or more cards in the hand

The Play:

Set both Greed cards and both Disturbance Strategies

If your opponent has more than four cards in their hand, activate your two Disturbance Strategy cards, then chain both Greed cards during their draw phase. Your opponent will take 1000 damage for each drawn from the deck during the End Phase of that turn.

Lean back in your chair; end your turn.

Why it's one of the best:

Thinking about holding back those cards to show how much of a “careful” or “pro” player you are? Ha! There isn’t much the writer can say about this strategy that is not already known. If your opponent has four cards in hand, and if you have these cards set, the game is yours. The cons of this OTK are as obvious as the pros: The only way to guarantee a knockout is to go first, and if your opponent knows to keep 4 cards from their hand, then that is what they’ll do. The Gift of Greed and other opponent-drawing cards can be used to compensate for this, but it’s hard to prevent one’s opponent from using cards. As Wario once preached, “Greed is good, greed can get you anything.” In the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, he was right: Your opponent’s greed can get you an instant victory, and that earns this OTK a slot on this list.

Yu-Gi-Oh god: I will grant you only one wish, mortal. Wisher: I want a lifetime supply of gold coins! Yu-Gi-Oh god: Okay, but they'll all be bent and mangled. Wisher: But I have obsessive compulsive disorder... NOOOOOOOO!!!!

Use Xiangke Magician’s effect to make that treatable as a level this turn

Overlay your now rank 7 Dragon with your Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon to Xyz summon Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon, using its effect on its summon to destroy your opponent’s monsters. This will activate its effect to attack 3 times during this battle phase.

Attack your opponent 3 times for game.

Why it's one of the best:

Even with the Konami gods hitting the Performagicians with the Limited hammer, don’t expect the protagonist of the anime’s latest season’s deck to go down easy. Heck, they even released an emergency banlist to slow this strategy’s meteor-momentum, and it’s still a heavy-hitter in the meta. The Odd-Eyes Rebellion OTK drives that point well past home. It may appear that this deck requires too much setup to make the strategy work, but looks can be deceiving with a Pendulum deck. Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon himself and Wisdom-Eye Magician can search for any of the magicians needed to make the necessary scales, and any of the Pendulums needed are searchable with Performapal Skullcrobat Joker. The OTK’s strategy, considering its spring of immortality that is the Extra Deck, gives it more synergy than any other contender on the list; however, your opponent needing a monster on the field, along with a well-timed Trap or Battle Fader, keep it from sitting at the apex. Still though… An OTK in a top-tier deck? It may be expected, but still dangerous.

That's right; it's a real OTK @_@! (Pegasus J. Crawford)

Quillbolt Hedgehog Loop

What you need:

Conditional

In Hand:

1 Cannon Soldier, 1 Imperial Iron Wall

1 extra card (Plaguespreader in Graveyard)

In Graveyard:

1 Quillbolt Hedgehog, 1 Plaguespreader Zombie or Glow-up Bulb

The Play:

Set your Imperial Iron Wall

During your next turn, activate it. Summon your Cannon Soldier.

Special Summon your Plaguespreader Zombie or your Glow-Up Bulb from the Graveyard. Remember, if you’re using Plaguespreader, you must have a card in your hand return to the top your deck for its effect.

Special Summon the Quillbolt Hedgehog from the Graveyard. Tribute it with Cannon Soldier’s effect to deal 500 damage to your opponent. Thanks to Imperial Iron Wall, your Quillbolt won’t banish itself when it leaves the field.

Repeat step 4 until you triumph.

Why it's one of the best:

You just can’t beat the classics. The Quillbolt Hedgehog Loop remains timeless, because A. It requires nothing on the part of your opponent to do anything, B. You don’t have to risk attacking your opponent, and C. Imperial Iron Wall, the Continuous Trap needed in the strategy, is also a stun card, putting shackles on any deck requiring banishing these days (Ex: Any tournament-level Zombie deck, Ritual Beasts, Anti-meta, Kozmos, ABC-Dragon Buster, etc.). Also, unlike most of the OTKs on this list, this strategy blends perfectly under other decks’ strategies (such as Quickdraw-Synchro), meaning you can continue making solid plays without relying on it to finish your opponent, meaning one’s opponent might not see the OTK until it’s too late, even after it’s revealed. Unfortunately, tuners may be a dime a dozen, but targeting the Imperial Iron Wall is still the best way to combat the OTK (Currently, there is even a way around that. Reference Ghostrick Angel of Mischief.) As long as Cannon Soldier remains off the Banlist, and as long as its errata doesn’t change… The Quillbolt Hedgehog Loop will stay an OTK contender.

If his hands weren't metal claws, I'd high-five Cannon Soldier for his choice of ballistics. An endless supply of hedgehogs beats a limited supply of bullets any day.

Chimeratech Rampage OTK

What you need:

In Hand and/or on Field:

2 or more Cyber Dragon monsters

In the Hand:

Power Bond

In Deck:

1 Light, Machine-type monster

In Extra Deck:

1 Chimeratech Rampage Dragon

The Play:

Activate Powerbond, using the two Cyber Dragons in your hand or 2 monsters with Cyber Dragon’s name on the field to Fusion summon Chimeratech Rampage Dragon. Thanks to Powerbond’s effect, its attack should be doubled at 4200.

If necessary, use its effect to destroy Spell/Trap cards on your opponent’s field equal to the number of materials used to summon it. Use its second effect to send 1 Light, Machine-type monster to the graveyard so it can attack twice.

Attack your opponent directly twice for the finish.

Why it's one of the best:

The writer would argue no monster's OTK is better than dark, mechanical dragons infused with evil energy. The Hieratics, their spiritual, altar-butchering brethren, used to rival them in the OTK sphere; however, in Frieza from DBZ’s “This is not even my final form yet” fashion, Konami keeps releasing more and more powerful fusions for the Chimeratechs. Chimeratech Rampage Dragon dominates the stage as their latest transformation, and it is arguably the best: It transcends any tribute-happy, mummy dragon by inherently destroying Spell or Trap cards on its summon. But what if the writer told you ole Rampage isn’t the most dangerous part of this OTK? There exists something in this archetype, an optional tool to seal this OTK no other contender has access to: Cyber Dragon Infinity, the infamous monster absorber, one-card-per-turn-negater. Naturally, any OTK requiring a direct attack has its weaknesses (Just stop the attack, of course…), but with a monster with multiple attacks that can destroy Spell and Traps on its summon and a monster in the archetype able to negate any card effect once a turn, you’ll be hard-pressed finding a method to stop it.

Man, that dragon looks pissed. I guess I would be too if my body was trapped in some weird, black, Rubik's Cube thingy.

What OTK do YOU think outplays the others?

The Atlantean

Anti-Heal

Frightfur

Electrum/Gustav

Exodia

Greed

Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon

Quillbolt Hedgehog Loop

Chimeratech Rampage

Actually... __________ is the best OTK! (Your opinion in comments below)

Comments

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Author

Zeron87 2 months ago

Thanks for the comments, Last cHoTiMe and Last oNWE (man, do you guys love playing with upper, lowercase letters... lol.). I don't face Cubics often, but after looking up the OTK, I wonder why @_@? That ridiculous attack gain + that 3000 burn makes the OTK real. I can definitely see the Cubics gaining popularity with the Link format currently limiting the Extra deck. I might include them in a sequel to this hub.

I actually did research the Lunalight Leo Dancer OTK, Chotime. I find the deck formidable (I have a friend who plays with Lunalights), and the OTK is possible, but to me it needed too much set-up to be as dangerous as the other entries on the list.

Again, thank you both for commenting!

cHoTiMe 3 months ago

Lunalight Leo Dancer

Last oNWE 3 months ago

Where cubic? :(

Author

Zeron87 11 months ago

Wow, that card would definitely take the ban-hammer if it existed. For some reason that reminds me of World-Lock. If you get that strategy going, even though its quite a venture to setup, your opponent has no more turns. The scary thing is: The new Darklord support makes it easier to perform the lock @_@.

Jeremy Gill 11 months agofrom Louisiana

Another good Hub man, it's clear you know your Yu-Gi-Oh.

I'm sure it used anime-only cards, but I recall a "zero-turn" win once employed by Sartorius in Yu-Gi-Oh GX, where he won on his opponent's turn, never even taking a turn himself!

Course, I'm probably the only only one who bothered watching GX long enough to see that haha.